Arctic expert, professor Peter Wadhams, doesn’t think much of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In fact, the Cambridge professor of ocean physics and head of the university’s Polar Oceans Physics Group, denounces the IPCC as a dangerous sellout.

Reading this press release about a new paper in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology spoiled my day. It might not be obvious to a casual reader just glancing through the morning news — but a couple of paragraphs leapt out at me:

The Japanese have successfully tapped seabed methane clathrates, also known as “flammable ice.” Deposits of compressed and frozen methane are fairly common in northern waters. British Columbia has looked at exploiting them.

The gas field is about 50km away from Japan’s main island, in the Nankai Trough.